Woman makes perogies in Colwood, enlists friend to randomly help seniors in Kyiv

Lia is making perogies from scratch in her kitchen, recalling fond and funny memories of learning to make them with her grandmother in Ukraine.

“She’d be threatening me with a rolling pin, like I’m not doing it right,” Lia smiles, showing a picture of her doing just that, before fighting back tears.

“I’m still probably not doing it right, but I’m trying.”

Lia is trying to hold it together because she was born in Ukraine and the lives of the family and friends she grew-up visiting in Kyiv are being torn apart.

“I stress bake,” Lia says. “I just thought, ‘Maybe if I just make perogies for whoever wants it and and sell them, that will be my small way of helping.’”

So Lia and her mom Alla started making thousands of them together, before contacting her life-long friend Maksym – who still lives in Ukraine – to help.

“It’s scary because you never know where (a missile) is going to land,” Maksym says during a video call from Kyiv, after showing a picture he took of a missile flying over his head.

“Especially when you are on the street helping people.”

Thanks to Lia selling perogies from her kitchen in Canada, Max is helping seniors on the street in Ukraine.